John Dearborn

Know someone (perhaps yourself!) who presented a great paper on a Presidents and Executive Politics panel at APSA in 2025?

Submit a nomination for the Founders Best Paper Award by February 2!

Scenes from #Calgary and #Canmore

Today's CNN piece on the upcoming Trump v. Slaughter case includes some thoughts from me on rise of the unitary executive theory and Chief Justice John Roberts's ideas from his time in the Reagan administration.

www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/p...

Enjoyed my first @socscihistory.bsky.social conference. Until next time, Chicago.

Thanks so much to @gorenlj.bsky.social for interviewing Jack Greenberg and me about 'Congressional Expectations of Presidential Self-Restraint' on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social Political Science podcast.

newbooksnetwork.com/congressiona...

Stephen Skowronek seated in his office in front of bookshelves

We chat with @slskowronek.bsky.social about his new book "The Adaptability Paradox" and how American democracy may have outgrown the Constitution: bit.ly/3WODXPz

Today's article in the Knoxville News Sentinel about the Trump administration's messaging during the government shutdown includes some thoughts from me about the importance of the Hatch Act.

www.knoxnews.com/story/news/p...

New issue! includes articles from bsky-ers @johnadearborn.bsky.social @uhackett.bsky.social @trounstine.bsky.social @michaelgreenberger.bsky.social @ayakohiramatsu.bsky.social and much more!

Until next time, Vancouver. #APSA2025

How Trump Broke The Presidency Trump’s quest to claim all power for himself is drastically reshaping not just his presidency, but American democracy writ large.

Wrote about Trump's vision of the presidency as a "mini-absolutist monarchy" (as @johnadearborn.bsky.social put it). And since the expansion of executive power has been described as a ratchet, why no future president is likely to give it up willingly
www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

Scenes from an archival research trip to the Clinton Library. #LittleRock

This HuffPost article by @paulblumenthal.bsky.social on how the second Trump administration is transforming the presidency includes some thoughts from me.

www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

Until next time, #Austin

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has embraced a formalist approach to separation of powers law, allegedly justified by the Constitution's "original meaning." It is revolutionary, rapidly remaking the constitutional law of administration. But the Court's engagement with history is selective and idiosyncratic. In particular, it has largely ignored what we know of governmental practice in the early republic. This Essay attacks the Court's use of history. It uses Jack Balkin's analysis of legal discourse in Memory and Authority to unpack the Court's reliance on historical arguments and to suggest avenues for critique. It draws on recent scholarship on Founding Era practice to show that eighteenth-century understandings of separation of powers were not formalist. And it argues for the restoration of Montesquieu to our constitutional memory. A key figure in the development of the Constitution, Montesquieu's understanding of separation of powers closely tracked early republic practice. He thus points the way towards an alternative interpretation of our constitutional tradition and a more pragmatic and historically accurate structural constitutionalism in place of the Court's growing formalist fetish.

Delighted to share my latest, History and Fetishism in the New Separation of Powers Formalism, now live in the Penn Law Review!

The piece traces the emergence of the Supreme Court’s new approach to separation of powers law and argues that it is grounded in a set of basic mistakes. (1/3)

So excited to see this book out soon! Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the current moment American politics (and especially of interest to presidency and APD scholars).

New at First view and with open access! David Mayhew and Ethan Yan, "Intensity, Geography, and Time"

New on first view at SAPD! Sarah Anzia and @trounstine.bsky.social on the growth of public sector unions

Grateful to have been part of this fantastic interdisciplinary conference. There is so much great, timely research happening on the administrative state.

Then, finally, this *extremely* topical piece by @johnadearborn.bsky.social : “Contesting the Reach of the Rights Revolution: The Reagan Administration and the Unitary Executive”

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Ha you are too kind!

I’m not even gonna pitch this. It’s from John Dearborn, whose work is self-recommending.

Link to the open access article in @studiesapd.bsky.social:

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Thanks to @donmoyn.bsky.social for the opportunity to write this piece (drawing on my recent @studiesapd.bsky.social article) about the connection between conflicts over affirmative action and the unitary executive theory in the Reagan administration.

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-reagan...

How Reagan-Era Battles over Affirmative Action Fueled Unitary Executive Theory A desire to change civil rights policies has long shaped the conservative legal movement’s vision for asserting presidential control over the administrative state

New at Can We Still Govern: Trump hates DEI and loves unitary executive theory. @johnadearborn.bsky.social
traces one of rhe first early articulations of the theory in the Reagan-era assault on affirmative action, featuring a couple of current SCOTUS justices. 🧵
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

Today's @rollingstone.com article by @douglaslucas.bsky.social on the Republican congressional effort to pass the Reorganizing Government Act includes some thoughts from me about the history of presidential reorganization authority.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Scenes from #London and #Edinburgh

Resurrecting the Trinity of Legislative Constitutionalism From 1919 to 1969, the Offices of the Legislative Counsel in the Senate and House drafted precedential opinions to advise lawmakers on constitutional and subconstitutional questions. This Article lift...

/1 Just realized that my latest article with @yalelawjournal.bsky.social just dropped! This is obviously a huge honor. I really appreciate the editors taking a chance on a young, no-name scholar with an idiosyncratic story to tell.

www.yalelawjournal.org/article/resu...

Thanks to @mattgrossmann.bsky.social for having me on the Science of Politics podcast to discuss my research on the Reagan administration, civil rights, and the unitary executive theory.

www.niskanencenter.org/the-backstor...

The backstory for presidential power grabs - Niskanen Center President Trump is claiming power over independent agencies and trying to redirect the administrative state, saying he is its unitary executive.

The backstory of presidential power grabs

Reagan controlled civil rights agencies, building the unitary executive theory. 1st Trump admin controlled immigration courts, but by building them up

New #ScienceOfPolitics with John Dearborn & David Hausman

www.niskanencenter.org/the-backstor...

"Dada's book" (aka 'Congressional Expectations of Presidential Self-Restraint,' by Jack Greenberg and me) is now out in print!

www.amazon.com/Congressiona...